1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of computer peripherals, specifically to a mouse.
2. Prior Art
The desktop computer mouse was born in the 1970s as a computer interface device, a box of switches to be pushed around the desktop as a minor adjunct to the keyboard. It would have been difficult then to predict how many people would come to use the mouse a generation later, how much they would come to use it, and how its growing use would become associated with repetitive stress injury (RSI). In the workplace, mouse utilization has increased at the application level at the same time that mouse driven programs themselves have expanded in use. U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,798 indicates that research directed by Peter W. Johnson of University of California Berkeley/San Francisco Ergonomics Lab indicates that mouse usage occupies one to two-thirds of one""s working time on a computer.
In addition, the computer mouse may be utilized for added hours each day by users in ways unforeseen in the 70""s associated with internet browsing and chatting, computer creativity tools and computer gaming which currently is the fastest growing market in the US economy.
The mouse has been utilized as a motion and directional input device for computer games with 3d environments since the mid 1980s.
The mouse implementation that makes these 3d gaming environments navigable is called Mouselook. This is described in the instructions to the popular game Quake 3: xe2x80x9cFor the most part, you""ll look around simply by moving the mouse to and fro. Imagine that your mouse is controlling the gladiators head and you""ll quickly get the hang of it. Remember that you will shoot whatever you are looking at.xe2x80x9d
Just as the driver of a car can look around and up and down without needing to turn the car, the mouselook function allows the gamer to xe2x80x9clook aroundxe2x80x9d the game while moving independently. Agility or speed in looking around is an advantage.
The need to turn the mouse quickly in 3d environment-based games requires the physical means to easily turn or rotate the mouse. However, with the conventional handheld mouse, the relatively coarse control of the deltoid muscle group that rotates the elbow to achieve this makes it an ergonomically difficult task. Additionally the ergonomic assumptions of prior art design goals, (i.e. xe2x80x9crelaxed positionxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cposition of reposexe2x80x9d) don""t address the stress ergonomics that arise in gaming mouse use sessions where the mouse is in constant and continuous motion.
Unfortunately, since the 1970""s computer mouse use has been clinically related to RSI (Repetitive Stress Injury). Hand-held mice are actually moved by the arm, which proves to be injurious. A review of diagnostic literature show irrefutably that the joints and muscular system of the shoulder, elbow, forearm and wrist operate under stress and are prone to injury when used to accomplish repetitive mouse movement. Whether the mouse use is in game play or is work related, the risk of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, the most serious of the RSI injuries, rises with prolonged use. This wrist injury is the number one cause of industrial lost time in the US and is estimated to result in over $20 billion in lost wages to workers in 2001. The correctional operation, which typically requires 6 months for full recovery, has become the most commonly preformed industrial related operation in the US.
The current invention, a xe2x80x9csecond generationxe2x80x9d mouse features a small, light shape that fits an ergonomically positive hand posture to provide increased control for the speed and movement requirements of 3d computer gaming and other computer operations while requiring less than half the movement of a conventional desktop mouse.
The invention makes use of the hand musculature/cortex area that is minimally utilized or exercised in devices of prior art design. The human hand""s most dexterous and sensitive control architecture is the thumb and opposable finger group. The feedback transmitted tactilely through the object grasped between the thumb and fingers allows sophisticated motion control in that the object may be moved simultaneously in different directions by either digit. The high degree of control that is obtained from this tactile feedback loop makes possible the surgeon""s scalpel, the scientist""s dial, and the violinist""s bow. It is appropriate, in light of the current ergonomic shortcomings to regard mouse control as a similarly challenging operation that should maximally utilize and conserve the hand""s strength and dexterity.
One object of the present invention is to provide a desktop mouse consisting of a sensitive motion encoder housed in a small form sized and shaped to be held and controlled by the thumb and opposable fingers, and thus obtain superior rotation and motion control specifically useful in 3d environment gaming for functions such as mouselook, as well as on the desktop for conventional computer operations, such performance requiring less than half the motion of many devices of the prior art.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a device that allows the user a comfortable, sustainable posture that is free of the injurious flexing stresses associated with CTS. Therefor, the structure is designed to allow a semi-pronated handwriting posture that allows the heel of the hand and little finger to remain aligned and motionless on the desktop, with no compression of the wrist or requirement for flexing of the wrist or hand. A primary design objective of this invention is to reduce carpal tunnel activity and stress over devices of the prior art by A) requiring less than half the motion B) shifting the movement task to the better suited thumb and hand muscles, which only need to move the two digits grasping the device, (only the finger of which requires carpal tunnel activity,) and C) the integral ergonomic efficiency of the xe2x80x9cpushing redundancyxe2x80x9d of the two point grasp, in that only one digit or motive point at a time may need to exert movement force.